Stopping the expense scandals
The most surprising aspect — perhaps the only surprising aspect — of Health Minister Jane Philpott’s public upbraiding over an excessive limo bill is how often this sort of thing happens to politicians.
Philpott’s is the first instance of a senior member of the Trudeau cabinet getting caught with their hand dug too deeply into the taxpayers’ cookie jar. But she probably won’t be the last. It happens to politicians at every level of government. It happened to the Harper Conservatives, the Chrétien Liberals and the Mulroney Tories. It happens at the provincial level — former Alberta Premier Alison Redford lost her job over her use of government aircraft to ferry her and her daughter around the province. It happens at the municipal level — former mayor Rob Ford won Toronto’s top job almost entirely on his campaign against city councillors’ hoggish abuse of their ample expense accounts.
To some, the frequency and enthusiasm with which elected officials help themselves to the goodies that come with public office is evidence of the corruption that eventually overcomes them all. But in this case, the simplest explanation doesn’t necessarily satisfy. Philpott does not appear to fit the mould of an over- entitled swollen head. She quickly took responsibility and offered to repay the costs. Conservative MP Michelle Rempel, usually a feisty partisan, seemed disinclined to make too much of the situation when the story first broke, describing Philpott as “solid” and suggesting that next time she just rent a car and have a staffer drive it.
Rempel’s tone has changed as more details emerged. Still, the health minister’s transportation habits don’t necessarily signal dishonesty or arrogance. They might just as easily reflect the curious cluelessness that so often strikes people exposed to easy access to public funds. Bev Oda, perhaps the best-known case of a Harper cabinet minister losing his or her job over dotty spending, was in London for a conference when she decided to upgrade from her five-star suite to an evenswankier hotel, and then hired a limo to ferry her back and forth. She was brought down over a $16 glass of orange juice.
The question at the time wasn’t whether Oda deserved to go — of course she did — but how anyone could be so stupid. And the answer was similar to that given in so many previous cases: cabinet members are busy people. They have important things to do. Their minds are on matters of state, not little things like orange juice and limo expenses. All of which may or may not be true — current Toronto Mayor John Tory is a fairly busy guy, but has been known to take the subway to work and seems to get around well enough without running up egregious limo bills. Perhaps that’s because he worked in the private sector and knows a problem expense when he sees one. But it begs the question: with all the aides, assistants, advisers and other backup forces made available to political hotshots, why does no one ever stop to say, “Um, sorry minister, but it might be an idea to pay for that muffin yourself”?
Governments pour hundreds of millions of dollars into surveys, polls and town halls, in order to gauge public reaction. Every minor nuance is assessed and analyzed for its political implications. Yet it doesn’t seem to have registered yet that a public that can stomach annual deficits in the tens of billions of dollars gets excessively riled when they learn a mayor or minister has expensed a $ 5 parking bill, or a $4 hotdog.
The solution to risking a career on such minor matters would appear obvious: within each ministerial, mayoral or other political retinue should be one figure delegated to keep an implacable eye on expenditures, and the responsibility of warning the boss when he or she is about to do something astonishingly self- destructive. If the boss rejects the advice, they deserve whatever fate prevails. But at least they were warned.
The Trudeau government has displayed an intimate awareness of optics. The prime minister’s gadabout approach to office — chestbaring here, rock concerts t here, selfies absolutely everywhere — is no mere accident, but a deliberate image- building operation. Philpott’s quickness to apologize (it took Oda two years to begrudgingly accept blame) may reflect that sensitivity to the high price of small missteps. If so, Trudeau would do well to take it another step and advise other ministers to take the obvious step: if you can’t bother with costs, deputize someone to do so, and listen to what they say.